Flower Birthday Cake

A birthday cake. They can come in many different forms and I like to experiment and this is one of my own creations, made for my best friend. Considering I made it the day after returning from a trip to America I’m very pleased with my result. However I didn’t have the smoothest ride making the cake…

The actual sponges, in which I used a simple 4oz flour, 4oz sugar, 4oz butter and 2 eggs recipe and filled with whipped cream and fresh strawberries , came out fine- brilliant in fact however the rest of the journey is a bit down hill. Being July when I made the cake, the sun (yes believe it or not) was shining causing it to be very hot and thus, manipulating fondant icing proved to be very difficult. After many fights with the fondant I somehow managed to get it to cover the cake smoothly enough, with a few holes here and there… But of course these holes weren’t going to be a problem considering the decoration I chose to top the cake with.

The flowers which topped my cake were made by simply kneading food colouring into the fondant icing until my required colour was made and the shapes were formed by a pastry cutter- easy enough. What made the next step difficult was that the flowers dried very quickly making them very hard to stick onto the slowly melting cake. However a lot of will power (and jam) later, the flowers finally started to stick together and cover up the mistakes in my base coat icing. The writing was done by using a paintbrush and some food dye. I also added some edible glitter to the surroundings of the cake which hasn’t 100% worked but you get the idea.

When finished I took it along to my theatre school’s dress rehearsal that evening and it was destroyed by my best friend of whom it was her birthday and 20 of our fellow performing friends. I’m glad to say after all that effort it was enjoyed by all and I even got the odd “that was the nicest thing anyone’s ever made for me” comment here and there confirming that hard work can pay off. All in all, what a tiring day!